ExaGrid Systems Achieves Record Q4 and Full Year 2008 Sales Results
 
Company Continues to Gain Significant Market Share for Disk-Based Backup Appliances with Data Deduplication in Mid-market/Small Enterprise Companies

ExaGrid Systems, Inc. (http://www.exagrid.com), the leader in cost-effective and scalable disk-based backup solutions with data deduplication, today announced record sales for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2008.  Fourth quarter sales for the company were up 23% compared to the previous quarter, and up 120% vs. the same quarter last year. Business through channel partners continues to grow and was 60% of the business in Q4.

With over 1,200 systems installed in more than 550 unique locations at more than 300 customers, ExaGrid has the industry’s second largest installed base of disk-based backup appliances with data deduplication in mid-market/small enterprise companies.

Along with strong sales results, the company continued to execute in a variety of important areas during the quarter. Key achievements in Q4 2008 included the following:

•   Growing Market Share:  ExaGrid has surpassed 300 customers and in Q4 announced that a recent study conducted by TheInfoPro, an independent research firm, showed that ExaGrid Systems is the second most installed disk backup with data deduplication appliance vendor cited by study respondents in mid-market/small enterprise companies. ExaGrid targets customers with 1TB to 100TBs of data to be backed up.

•   Worldwide Customer Acquisition:  ExaGrid continues to win against its competitors, gaining a long list of new customers throughout the world in key industries such as: Healthcare, Legal, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Education and State/Local Government. View more than 84 real-world ExaGrid customer case studies on the ExaGrid web site, including success stories from leaders like Adventist Health, Kawasaki, Kingston Technology, Konica Minolta and Morningstar, via: http://www.exagrid.com/why_exagrid/customer_success_stories.asp.

•   Global Channel Growth:  ExaGrid added dozens of partners to its global base during the quarter and now has hundreds of VARs and several key distributors throughout the world.  ExaGrid continues to invest in building a robust global channel.  60% of ExaGrid’s Q4 business was sold through channel partners. In EMEA, ExaGrid sells solely through a two-tier approach with value-added distributors and resellers.  The UK distributor is Zycko (UK) Ltd.

•   Product Leadership:  During the quarter ExaGrid announced and shipped several customer-focused product enhancements, including an industry-first, instant disaster recovery (DR) capability, 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity options, expanded data handling and automated system health reports. These product enhancements allow customers to significantly improve the way they manage their backups by providing greater flexibility in handling disparate backup data types, delivering backup data more rapidly for DR purposes and providing proactive system health reporting on key operational metrics.  With this release, ExaGrid supports leading backup applications such as Symantec Backup Exec™ and NetBackup™, CA ARCserve ®, EMC Networker®, CommVault® Galaxy™, and Vizioncore vRanger Pro; as well as other data types including VMware® VMDK, Oracle® RMAN, Linux/Unix data dumps and Microsoft ™ SQL dumps. ExaGrid’s future product plans include the support of many additional backup applications and utilities.

•   Continued Industry Partnerships:  In Q4, ExaGrid continued joint sales and marketing campaigns with several backup software and industry leaders, including Symantec and Vizioncore. Joint ExaGrid and Symantec/Vizioncore on-demand Webcasts are available now via:
http://www.exagrid.com/news_and_events/disk-based_backup_webcasts_and_podcasts.asp

“With the highest performance and most scalable product at the best price, ExaGrid continues to be a rapidly-growing leader in the disk-based backup market,” said Bill Andrews, president and CEO of ExaGrid Systems.  “Despite challenging macro-economic conditions, our worldwide sales to mid-market/small enterprise companies increased substantially in Q4 and throughout 2008.  ExaGrid is a key player in the global market for tape backup replacement with disk backup solutions that use data deduplication technology.  We’re excited about 2009 and eager to leverage the strong business foundation we built in the prior year to continue our technology leadership and market share growth.”

Andy Palmer, EMEA Sales Director for ExaGrid, commented: "Despite the current economic climate we are seeing real enthusiasm for our products from both private and public sector customers in the UK."